Itsy Bitsy Spider (Emma Frost #1) (6 page)

The Queen of
Fitness
was what they called her. Irene Justesen was
her real name but no one ever called her that anymore. Not after she became
famous in Denmark for her fitness videos back in the early nineties and wrote
herself into the history books as the first real fitness guru. There had been
many others since trying to accomplish what she had, but none as successful as
her.

Even as she was approaching seventy she still
looked as fit as ever and she still told people they could also get those iron
buns if only they worked on it.

In many ways Irene Justesen was a success story,
one that many people admired and tried to emulate. She had made millions during
the nineties. People bought her videos, her books and she even had her own show
on TV.
Iron buttocks in fifteen minutes
quickly became one of the most popular TV shows in the history of television in
Denmark. People everywhere in the country, tall or small, old or young watched
as Irene Justesen showed them how to
work
those abs
or
get rid of the
cellulite in only fourteen days
. The key to her success was being at
the right place at the right time. She started making her videos just as the
health and fitness wave swept across the country and everybody had to start
working out. Plus she was the first one. The first to make it easy for people
to get in shape, to
Shape It Up
like
the title on her first video. For the first time people didn't have to go all
the way down to the fitness center (of which there were very few back then)
they didn't have to join some aerobics class and sweat on a floor among twenty
other people (who were always more fit and better looking then yourself) while
looking at how ridiculous you looked in the body sized wall to wall mirrors.
No, with these new videos they could stay at home and work out. They could do
it in the private, where no one was looking. And that suited the Danes very
well. Everybody had to have a video at home and often people would make sure to
have the cover lying out somewhere in the living room when they had guests,
just to be able so remove it blushing slightly with a
excuse me, I was just working out earlier today
.
It was a prestige, a symbol of status, of being a person who had things under
control and it made a great party subject for a change (instead of the weather
that seemed to have been debated for ages).

The success lasted all through the nineties when
suddenly people began to find it embarrassing to have the videos and stopped
watching the show on TV. Other fitness gurus came along and tried to do what
The Queen of Fitness had done, but they never had the same kind of success she
had.

But Irene never seemed to make peace with the
fact that she was no longer popular. She still lived on Fanoe island, where she
had grown up, but now bought a huge mansion much to the island-people's
discussion. She knew she was the talk of the town and she knew what they said
behind her back, but she no longer cared. She had put the old lifestyle behind
her and broken into a new life and she had done it on her own. Irene didn't
need those people anymore, not after ... well not after what they did to her.
She still thought she was famous and she did occasionally have a tourist or two
come up to her in the street and ask her if she wasn't the Queen of Fitness.

Now she decided to revive her career. Before it
was too late. At sixty-nine years of age she made a new video, targeting the
older audience of course and she was about to release it on DVD. It had been a
long time since Irene Justesen had last felt this excited about anything.

After her downturn she turned to drinking and
when that didn't help anymore she started popping pills. Years of abuse made
her realize she had been lonely for most of her life and the only time she
could remember being really happy was back in the days when she had been at the
top of her career. Now years later and recently out of the latest rehab, she
was ready for a re-launch of her career. After all people were fatter than ever
out there. They needed her advice more than they ever had.

Now she was sitting with one of her DVDs in her
hand and couldn't help but shed a small tear. She had to pay for it herself,
the making, the distribution, everything, and it had cost her far more than
what she could afford.

The front cover showed her in a sports bra,
leggings and her trademark, the pink legwarmers, pink sweat band and pink
lipstick.

"Still looking great," she mumbled to
herself and considered celebrating with a glass of cherry wine, that she had
always enjoyed drinking. She poured herself a glass and looked in the mirror.

"You still got it, old girl."

Irene Justesen
was finishing
her workout with a team of Nordby's old
ladies who had stuck with her for the last ten months in spite of the general
opinion of Irene on the island and despite the long break while Irene was in
rehab.

Not that they had become any thinner during
those months, on the contrary, but they liked coming there and it kept them
from the pastries for at least the hour the workout lasted in Irene Justesen's
private gym at her property on the North-West side of the island.

Most of them thanked her before they went
towards the showers. Irene nodded and thanked them back. They all thought she
did this class out of a loving heart, but the fact was she was almost broke.
She had spent a huge amount of money on rehab the last years and on her latest
DVD. She was in desperate need of money. Her lawyer had told her just last week
that if she didn't start making some money instead of just spending it, she
would lose her estate and the house within a month. Irene assured him her next
DVD would bring all the money she needed, sounding reassuring and certain in
her voice, but feeling the insecure beating of her worried heart underneath the
sweatshirt.

She was considering opening up for more classes
but wasn't sure there was enough interest on the island for that. Maybe she
could do something for the tourists? Lord knew there were enough of those to
keep her going for years. And they needed exercise while eating all that fried
fish down at the harbor. Maybe they would buy her DVD as well.

Irene drank from her water bottle. She was out
of breath after the workout.

Or maybe because you ended up
drinking that entire bottle of cherry wine last night.

Irene coughed and sat down on a bench with her
towel around her shoulders. She wiped off the sweat from her face and pulled
off her pink sweat band. Her hair was soaked and her cheeks all blushed. It had
taken all of her strength to do the entire routine and she had a hard time
calming her heart down again.

Don't give up now. Don't give
up on me old heart. I need you.

The doctors at her last rehab center had told
her she needed to stop it, stop the fitness or it would end up killing her
eventually. In their opinion her heart had become too weak from the excessive
drinking throughout the years and it wouldn't be able to cope with too much
exercise or too much strain anymore. But Irene knew it wasn't the exercise that
stressed the old ticker and made it weak. It wasn't the drinking either. It was
that damn secret she was carrying, the one that had strained on her heart for
so many horrible years now. But she had done the right things afterwards even
if it was too late. She had turned her back on those people, even if it meant
she fell into disgrace among those who were important on the island. But it was
too late. Way too late before she finally stood up for herself. And that was
the sorrow she had to carry for the rest of her life. A sorrow and sadness so
deep it stressed her heart and she knew it would eventually wear it out. This
secret of hers would one day end up killing her.

Irene sighed and got up on her feet. The heart
was calmer now even if her pulse still felt high. She took her towel and walked
towards the showers, where she could hear her ladies were just finishing off
and getting dressed. She opened the door and entered.

"Nice job today, ladies," she said
putting on her old TV-smile, the one that made her famous all across the
country. The smile that was always the same no matter if she was doing push-ups
on the floor or jumping jacks. Or if she - like now - was in excruciating pain
from knowing her past would soon catch up on her one way or the other.

"See you next Wednesday ladies," she
yelled at the women as they left one after the other.

A few minutes later she was alone, her smile
still stuck on her like a mask for Halloween. Irene sighed deeply and sat down
again.

"Poor baby," she mumbled and suddenly
longed desperately after a drink.

Irene stared at the floor for a few minutes.
Suddenly she shrieked out loud. A black hairy spider was crawling towards her
on the bathroom tiles. Irene put a hand to her chest.

"Gosh you gave me a shock. Nearly killed me
you stupid creature."

Irene grabbed one of her shoes, then smashed it
onto the tiles killing the spider instantly.

Strange creatures those
spiders
, she thought and put the shoe away.
Get in everywhere.

She wiped the remains off with a paper towel and
threw it in the toilet. As she watched it flush down the drain, she thought she
heard steps behind her and turned with a gasp.

I was right
,
she thought just before she was knocked out.
It
was my past that was going to eventually kill me. I just didn't know it would
be this soon
.

Her head felt
heavy
as she opened her eyes. It was hurting badly
from the blow she had received in the bathroom. Now she was back in the gym,
and what was that?
Oh gosh
, she
thought.
I can't ... I can't move!

A face appeared in front of her. The eyes ...
the eyes were so familiar. She had seen him before but never up close. Oh my
God could it really be?

Oh but you know it is, don't
you? You know who he is and you knew he was going to come for you one day. You
knew all along.

"What do you want?" she yelled hoping
someone somewhere would hear her, but deep down she knew it was in vain. Her
gardener didn't come till Friday, her cleaning lady not until noon the next day.
By that time ... by that time she could be
dead
.

Oh dear God. I didn't mean it
when I said I wanted to go, when I asked you to take me home last night in my
daze. I was drunk, dear Lord, I was so drunk. Now I'm sober and I want to live,
I want to live.

"You know what I want," the man
replied. He was smiling, laughing while looking at her tied up to the Total Gym
XLS Home Gym. Her arms attached to the machine above her head, her legs tied to
the bottom. Irene growled.

"I have money. I can give you money,"
she lied.

The man laughed. His pale skin looked so
fragile, almost see through.

"I don't want your stupid money," he
hissed.

"Nonsense. Everybody wants money. It’s all
anybody ever wanted," Irene replied.

"Like you?" the man said. "Is
that why you did it? Is that why you agreed to do it?"

Irene bit her lip, while thinking about that
time they had offered her the money. It had haunted her every day of her life
since that she had taken it, but she thought it was for the best for everyone.
How could she know what they were planning to do? The money had been enough for
her to start her own business, a business that had given her a glorious career.
Yes she regretted what she had done every single day of her life, but she could
hardly change the past, now could she?

She watched as the man danced around her until
he stopped and pulled out a bag looking like the ones the chefs had at
restaurants. He folded it out and a big set of sparkling knives appeared. Irene
gulped. It was all about playing her cards right now. This guy meant business,
but maybe she could appeal to his soft side, everybody had one, didn't they?

"Please don't hurt me. I'll make it worth
your while," she said with her famous smile.

The man giggled. "It's already worth my
while. Seeing you suffer is all I have waited for."

"Surely you wouldn't want to harm an old
lady, would you?"

The man froze, then he took in a deep breath. He
picked up a knife and a pair of surgical scissors. He lifted them both into the
air and put them in front of her face so she could better see.

Irene shrieked. She felt her heart pound hard in
her chest. Sweat broke out on her upper lip. She knew it was a long shot but
she tried anyway.

"Sweetheart. I'm actually glad to see you.
I have been so lonely ever since ... since ... well, I have been alone for so
many years and I bet you have too, right? We could start all over, forget the
past and move on. What do you say?"

The man turned his head like an owl and stared
at her without blinking. The grin was gone. He was serious now.

Irene swallowed hard. "What ... do you
intend to do with those things?"

"I intend to cut you open like a fish and
take out your organs one after another. Then I intend to stuff that disgusting
sweatband of yours down your throat before I leave you to bleed to death, if
you're not already dead. How does that sound?" He asked like he was a
waiter at a restaurant listing the day’s specials.

Irene gasped and looked at the knife in his
hand. "Ww... Why?"

He leaned over so she could see his entire face.
Then he whispered:

"Because I can."